Quick update

Howdy all. I can't update at the moment as I need access to a desktop or laptop computer in order to add photos. Currently smashing around the Greek island if Corfu with Alex Grimes. Keep tuned for posts on Ukraine, Gallipoli, ANZAC day, Malta, and Greece!

European Russia

Goof and I spent three days (+ 5 hours due to the bloody time zone differences) on a train as we traveled from Siberia to western Russia. It was mostly passed in a daze of reading books, playing cards, and sipping vodka.

and sleeping, there was a lot of sleeping.

Our first stop was Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. We met our latest Honcho, Katie, at the station and she promptly dropped us off at our hotel with pretty strict instructions that we should shower. After thus we proceeded to take in the local sites. These included the World Heritage Site the Kazan Kremlin, which houses bizarrely shaped mosques, massive statues, and a fire station. We also visited a cathedral that houses the Our Lady of Kazan holy icon.

This was the first of many awesome mosques I have since visited - Kazan set a high standard for beautiful structures.

This icon was found by a young girl after receiving a vision of the Virgin Mary in the 1500s, and the cathedral was built where the icon was found. One of the many humourous things from our journey was our honcho's insistence of visiting their new zoo in Kazan. Turns out it was a petting zoo with all of the usual farm animals (chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, etc. Oh, and emus - we cant forget the emus). At first she couldn't quite understand why we were not as excited as she was - until we explained that Goof grew up on a farm and I regularly visited my grandparents farm.

I didn't let Baiky feed the animals at the zoo (Katie, in all her delighfulness, provided some food for us to give to the animals). To atone for this I let him ride a cat we found at another mosque.

During our wanderings in Kazan we were joined by Katie's cousin, Olga, who also works as a tour guide. We went to the pub and that's pretty much all I remember. I think it gies domething like this - after many beers Goof and I ventured to a nightclub called Coyote Ugly. We were given strict instructions not the touch the girls and then we drank the night away. After many more beers I joined in a drinking round with some Russians, not too sure what I was drinking but I think it involved Jaegar. I was told by Goof that at one stage the 'Aussies' were called to the bar so they could give us some cocktails. Goof carried me home (we got lost) and I must have fallen over and bumped my head because I had a massive bump which made me physically ill to touch for the next week.

The leaning tower of Kazan - located in the Kremlin. I cannot remember the exact details, but poor planning led to one side of the building sinking slightly. This, it turns out, is not uncommon. There is a legend that the last queen of Kazan threw herself from the top of the tower instead of marrying Ivan the Terrible (I think). Not quite accurate but adds to the terribleness of Ivan.
The next day I was a mess, but the show must go on. We visited more mosques and had lunch at a famous monastery outside of the town, and cleaned our shoes.

Baiky also warranted to quick 'shoe buff'.

Our next destination was Suzdal, a small town of just over 10 000 people 26 kms from Moscow. I gathered it is much like Batemans Bay- lots of people from Moscow like to travel there on weekends in summer to escape the big smoke (and Moscow is the biggest of smoke). While it used to be of political importance it is now mostly a religious center (there are a shitload of churches). It was an incredibly beautiful place and our Honcho here had the best English of all and also joined us for a beer (the first Honcho to do so).

Beers in Suzdal. Goof is angry because he has to share me with a seal and a Honcho.

Here we visited some churches, including the Church of St Nicholas, a wooden church that is part of an outdoor museum of wooden architecture. There was also an old prison in a monastery that we visited, but all I remember is that it had an awesome story, not the story itself (I had a raging headache all day because I couldn't stop touching my bump).

Suzdal in all of its snowy goodness. Even two weeks later I was still fascinated by frozen bodies of water

After our one night stay in Suzdal we were bundled into a car and driven to Moscow. While the outskirts of Moscow was only a few kms away the drive to the city centre took hours. Moscow is a huge sprawling metropolis of approximately 2 500 square kms and 11 000 000 people.

St Basil's Cathedral. A shot of this is in every movie that uses Moscow as a location (I may have made that up, but it was in Die Hard 5). 

I mentioned previously that the Chinese and Mongolians to big very well. Moscow architecture dwarfs them. Stalinist architecture is based around two things; keep it square and make it massive! Moscow was pretty cool and the first place our Honcho, Tanya, took us to an the museum of soviet arcade machines (at our insistence). Most of the games revolved around fine tuning soldiering skills (submarine captain, airforce pilot, shooting games, etc).

Goof destroys some tanks in fine style at the Arcade museum. 30 seconds after he finished the game the Russians conscripted him into the armoured corps.

We visited the Red Square, which houses the Moscow Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral. We got to see the changing of the (goose stepping) guards at the Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is a war memorial dedicated to the Soviet soldiers killed during WWII. We chencked out an outdoor sculpture gallery, and visited the Moscow University. The architecture of the Museum epitomizes Stalinest Architecture, the maths and physics building is all types of huge. The uni was pretty much the end of our great Vodka train trip after 24 days of culture.

A huge statue of Peter the Great. Originally it was supposed to be a statue of Columbus, but instead it commemerates the navy. Fun facts I just found on wikipedia - its the eighth tallest statue in the world and it was voted the tenth ugliest building by Virtual Tourist. Pity, it can be seen from a long way away - but in all honesty I was impressed by it.

Oh, there was also a shuttle.

Pictured: one shuttle

Goof and I did have one more day left in Moscow, as we had both decided to rest before the next leg of our respective trips. We found our way to a historic street called Arbat street, smashed some burgers at a Hard Rock café and enjoyed a quiet beer at a famous English pub opposite the Kremlin..

Yup, a few quiet beers, followed by a 'Death of Hassan' (that's a drink). That nice Russian ringing the bell introduced us to it. I'm not too sure how many he had, but we had to put him in a taxi on our way out. Here's the story, the bartender mixes a bright drink full of interesting looking spirits, plonks a hardhat on your head and then hits you the helmet quite hard. Someone starts ringing the bell and doesn't stop until you have sculled the drink. As Goof said, 'any drink that requires you to wear a hard hat you should be wary of.'

Its okay, we got home. It just took a long. long time, but we found more cool stuff on the way. What we did learn though, is that turning up hungover to an airport is not recommended. I am pretty sure I never even said goodbye to Goof as we parted ways. I just grunted and stumbled through immigration.

The happiness wears off about few hours later as we crawl into a cab at 6 am.

Siberia

So, first things first, spring in Siberia is cold - there is snow and cars drive on lakes! Secondly, despite what we had been told, Russian people are awesome (if somewhat confused at why we would leave Australia to visit Siberia). We visited three cities in Siberia; Ulan Ude, Irkutsk, and Listvyanka. All them were in the vicinity of Lake Baikal, a bloody massive lake that happens to be the largest repository of fresh water in the world and, most importantly, the only place where one can find fresh water seals.

Pictured: Cold (but, you know, not too cold).

We only spent one day in Ulan Ude (the first night was outlined in the Entry into Siberia post) but it was a great introduction into Russia. We had two Honchos and they took us on a  tour  that exhibited the rich history of the city. We started with an outdoor museum that had been reconstructed to resemble the  structures of early western settlers. Attached to this was a small zoo which had foxes, bears, wolves, and reindeer.

Rudolph - home at last.

Afterwards we wandered through town and the honchos showed us sculptures that commemorated things such as women's suffrage, various religions, and unity between their aboriginals and the western settlers.

One of the many sculptures in Ulan Ude. I am pretty sure this one was for Buddhism with the fish representing knowledge.

The native people of the area, who are of a distinct asian heritage, and the 'white russians' seemed to be completely integrated within their society. However, I guess they have had a few more hundred years than Australians to achieve unity. During this time Goof grilled the poor girls on local politics. Oh, and as mentioned earlier, the biggest head of Lenin resides in this town.

Leading a revolution is bound to give one a big head.

At 5pm the honchos left us with strict instructions be back at the hotel at 11pm so we could catch our train. We found a pub with some friendly Russians, who after offering us vodka, politely warned us of the folly of mixing beer and vodka. Lets just say that Goof and I barely made the train. Alas Rudolph was not so lucky and somewhere between the pub and the train he jumped ship. In all honesty he had achieved his goal, which was to leave the hot climate of Australia for his natural habitat. I like to believe he found his way back to the reindeer we had spotted earlier. Either that or he is with the Russian girls - and I cannot begrudge him that decision.

Yeah, we had about 15 mintues until we had to leave at this point.

The next morning I awoke in Irkutsk (one of the largest cities in Siberia) with very little recollection of our mad rush to the train and still somewhat tipsy. This was a good thing, as Goof was not in a talking mood and in my still inebriated state I filled in the void as Julia, our lovely new honcho, showed us around the historic town. As with all Russian towns there were monuments to founders, Lenin, and famous actors/writers/poets. It was a sensational tour, but at the time I beleived I had lost my camera the night before so Goof took all the photos. Alas he is yet to email them to me so  do not have any photos of Irkutsk right now (but watch this space, I will add some as soon as get them).

Without any pictures of Irkutsk I had to make do with this scenic view from our accomodation in Listvyanka. This is looking towards the lake.

Just as my hangover started to kick in we jumped in a car and drove to Listvyanka, a quant tourist spot on the shores of Lake Baikal and here the fun began (not in the car, we slept pretty much the whole way). Listvyanka was awesome, mostly because even walking seems like tourist activity when it is snowing, covered in ice, or you are actually walking on solid water.

Standing on Lake Baikal under a huge chunk of ice. at this point in time Goof and I were very nervous. 

To list some of the awesomeness we went dog sledding, rode on a hovercraft, climbed to the top of local hills, visited an aquarium, walked on the lake, drove on ice, and went ice fishing in the lake. Julia accompanied us on all our adventures, including our long walk on the icey lake. This must have bee frustrating for her is while it was a novelty for us, I am sure she has done it before. It is a pretty difficult endeavour as every second step our feet would slide in all directions. We had a running bet to see who would fall over first - I won one thousand tobruk (mongolian currency; appromately 80c (we made a lot of one thousand toburk bets).

Ice fishing - there was always a small concern we would fall in. You can also see a seal next to the fishing hole. He made many comments alluding to the fact that he was better at fishing than we were.

She also had to translate everything for us including menus, museum displays, and everything the ice fisherman said - and he said a lot. He really liked his job and Lake Baikal. The most fascinating thing he said was "usually you cant drive on the ice at this time of year because it is too thin. However its been a long winter so it should be okay" This was all said while looking at us and not where he was going. Granted, it was on a lake and there is very little to run into but we have all seen the crashed paddock basher that managed to hit the only tree in the paddock...

Eating our catch.

To cap off an amazing adventure that was Siberia (mostly Lake Baikal) I also found a fresh water seal who has indescribable urge to visit the Mediterranean. He returned our duo into a mighty trio and off we traipsed  to see what  European Russia had to offer (hint: it started with a  three day train ride. This is not recommended).

Baiky the Seal saying goodbye to his home as he searches for the warmer climates of the Mediterranean.

Interlude #3 - Inner Mongolian Museum

This museum was pretty cool. I particularly liked the Inner Mongolian natural history section. It was  on the first level, which was all palaeontology, there were heaps of dinosaurs, including the protoceratops,

I think there was a triceratops too, but memory can play tricks.

and a Nurosaurus

This is a huge dinosaur and is two stories high (12 metres) and 23 metres long. I think it's the largest Chinese plant-eating dinosaur.

as well fossils of many ancient animals such as the mammoth

Despite common belief the mammoth is actually bonier than me.

and prehistoric ancestors of the elephant and rhinoceros.

Elephant ancestor - hilarious.

The second level was dedicated to current Inner Mongolia and included exhibitions spaces for the environments of Inner Mongolia (including animals),

Rudolph with his own kind.

the extensive mining industry,

Look! Rocks! I have enough geology friends that I had to include this. To get the really riled up call them geographers. The results are explosive.

and the Chinese space program, which is based in Inner Mongolia. With the exception of the space program you could be forgiven for believing you were in an Aussie museum. The landscape is used for farming, mostly sheep and cattle, and the minerals mined seemed similar to Australia too. The third level focused on the history of Inner Mongolia, including the development of is civilisation as nomads, through to its occupation by China, Mongolia (under the great Khans), and by China again.

As the climate of the area cooled from hot and wet to cold and dry farming became untenable and the nomadic lifestyle of a herder more sustainable.

Lots of pottery, metal work, hand weapons, and horse technology.

Weapons of the Inner Mongolian clans, bow and arrows, broadsword, horsewhip, and a pistol.

There seemed to be a translation error with the weaponry as the swords were all called knives.

In the immortal words of Crocodile Dundee, "This is a knife".

They even had some Inner Mongolian gambling tools on display.

They must have known Goof was coming.

It finished with the modern history of Inner Mongolia such their involvement in the Great Wars and politics.

The war tents (Gers) used by the Mongolian generals whilst they conquered the world.

The fourth level had food areas dedicated to art. An author/poet/calligrapher, a display of plates painted to represent Germany by some famous artist, etc. We looked, but you know, there were no swords so I didn't take any photos (we've all seen plates and Chinese calligraphy before).

Here is a photo of a giant dinosaur boner instead.

Entry into Siberia

We had been warned, Russians are unfriendly and never smile. Our first interaction was with our train attendant. First she insisted on $20 USD so that we could have our train booth to ourselves, otherwise we were sharing with the very large drunk guy behind (yeah, so our second interaction was with a drunk Russian). So we paid our first Russian bribe before we had even left Mongolia. Very soon after she came back with souvenirs.

I jokingly asked our Mongolian Honcho how big our TV would be in the train, she looked shocked as she replied there will not be a TV in the train - well, jokes on you Aika. Also, Rudolph's on TV.

They were not very good and overpriced. She insisted we buy one each. After at least five minutes of saying no Andrew and I capitulated, we did need her to assist us through the Russian border after all. Soon after she returned, offering her assistance as a tour guide and her friends house for accommodation once in Siberia. We are fairly certain these would not have been particularly cheap options, but we took down her phone number to appease her. 

Look! An ACTTAB on the Mongolian/Russian border.

Many hours later we arrive in Ulan Ude, our first Russian stop. It was about 11pm. We met Svetlana, and older lady who I believe is one of the bosses of the Ulan Ude tour company. She took us to our hotel and then to the only place she could think of that would still be serving food - an English pub. I can not emphasise this enough, contrary to what we were told every single Russian we have met since leaving the train has been awesome. Svetlana even insisted she would cook dinner for us if the pub was no longer serving food At the pub Svetlana introduced us to her son, who was there drinking with mates. It was late and she wanted to go home, but she insisted he would help us get back to the hotel. Another Russian (Ivan) overheard the conversation Svetlana had with the bar staff. He sat down at our table spoke with us in very broken English for a few minutes, then returned with his friends.

Its the biggest head of Lenin ever! It was part of our impromptu night Tour.

He taught us some Russian and a few hours later he and his wife took us on an impromptu tour of the area around the pub before walking us back to the hotel. This was about 1 or 2 in the morning. Sensational!

Mongolia

Mongolia was better than I expected, and I had high expectations. It wasn't as developed as I thought, nor as cold (note, it was still cold), but what surprised me the most is that the herding community are still nomadic. The land is not owned by the farmers, instead they just follow there animals around, which are cattle, sheep, camel, goat, and horse.

A ger, surprisingly warm.

They live in large circular tents, called gers, which can be easily packed up. The farmers move about four times a year with the seasons but they don't really pick the destination. That responsibility they leave to their herds.

Goof and I spent a couple of nights in here, a typical ger. The fridge is run from solar power, or sometimes a car battery. The stove in the middle is for warmth and cooking.

The Mongolian landscape kind of reminded me of the Australian desert. Flat, treeless, but with hill/mountains in the background.

 

View from the top of high hill near our camp.the camp can just be seen behind the rock in the background.

The major difference here of course was the snow. It is spring time and it still snows, which we found out about on our second day at a ger camp.

The next morning the landscape looked like this.

We arrived in Ulaanbaatar at about lunchtime where we were greeted by our lovely Honcho, Aika, and our driver, Mende. and after lunch we visited their parliamentary building, which, unsurprisingly, has a massive statue of Chinngis Kahn out the front. This was followed by a lookout that is dedicated the liberation of Mongolia from China and a visit to nearby statue of Buddha with a drum we could play for good luck.

  Australia: big merino, big pineapple, big guitars, etc. Mongolia: Giant Kahns.

The next two days were spent dead-set in the middle of Mongolia, about 300 kms from Ulaanbaatar, in the previously mentioned ger camp. Mende drove us out there and we got to ride camels, visited a nomadic family, and Mongolia's first Buddhist temple at the site of their first capital city, Karakorum, established by Chingis Kahn in the 13th century. It was razed by the Chinese in 1388 but the monastery has been rebuilt (parts are still under construction).

The monastery is still in the process of being rebuilt. Some temples have been completed, the accomodation for the monks, and a museum but there is till lots of space for more additions.

It was quite relaxing and a good way to see the countryside. We played an few Mongolian games that use sheep knuckle bones. I lost pretty badly on the first night, but after ingesting the power of the bull (read really, really cheap Chinese vodka) I won on the second night. Goof and I then modified their version of horse racing with the knucklebones to sheep racing with Mario Kart-esque short cuts.

These are much bigger than I expected. I'm not one to give advice world conquerers, but I reckon the Mongolian cavalry should have used camels instead of steppe ponies.

Upon returning to Ulaanbaatar we took in a cultural performances that showcased Mongolian throat singing, traditional dances and music, and a contortionist who wouldn't have been out of place at the yoga world championships (YouTube it, but not while you're eating). As it was Aika's birthday Goof and I took her to an all-you-can eat restaurant, because that's the type of guys are.

Happy Birthday Aika! Once again Rudolph proves to be a social embarrassment.

We ended the visit with a trip to the National History Museum. Leaving was tough, but Goof and I have vowed to come back. During summer this time.

 Statues of Great Kahns everywhere and we come across this. Given the size of the Mongolian empire I would not be surprised at all if the predator was involved.

Interlude # 2 Bird and Reptile Park

Sim and I went to the bird and reptile park in Bali. I mainly wanted to see a Komodo dragon, but other highlights included crocodiles, a bird of prey show and two tortoises going at it (no photos, I gave them that amount of respect). The latter was hilarious, the male was making all sorts of noises while the female seemed thoroughly disinterested.

This was the first owl I ever saw and I was not disappointed.

The bird of prey show included eagles, owls, kites, and I think falcons. They would fly in and the presenters would throw food for them to catch.at one stage, to demonstrate the agility of one of the birds, the presenters brought a member of the crown forward, put some meat on her head and the bird snatched up without disturbing the volunteer.

Some silly tourist kept on putting her hand the enclosure. A part of me wanted to see the bird attack.

Sim and I also got up close and personnel with some Macaws. They tried to steal my sunnies and Rudolph.

I was in constant fear one of them would poop on me.

The reptile park was a bit sad. Maybe it's just because reptiles don't move much but all the crocs looked dead, one even had a large tumour-like growth on a hind foot.

They are scary and smelly and I would hate for one to get out.

There were lots of snakes and lizards and it was good to visit. Not sure I trust the lock holding in the Komodo dragon in the Reptile park though.

Am oversight I hope, but of all the enclosures only the Komodo dragon did not have the latch padlocked.

When I came across this guy wandering the park I wondered if a youth Komodo had escaped.

Not sure what this animal but it looks awfully Komodo-like.

Also, flamingoes!

All of them using two legs to stand, once again television has lied to me.